Democrats serve Australia-based WikiLeaks with lawsuit via Twitter

A law firm representing the United States Democratic National Committee has served legal papers to WikiLeaks for their role in the Russia-led interference of the US campaign during the 2016 election.

In a twist, the legal papers have been delivered via a tweet to the WikiLeaks account, with that organisation's physical address listed as the University of Melbourne.

Wikileaks have been served a lawsuit to a Melbourne University PO Box address.Credit:The Age/Paul Jeffers

WikiLeaks is a tier one registered incorporated association in Victoria, meaning it is officially a not-for profit with revenue of less than $250,000 per year. It used to be registered to an address in Grattan Street, Carlton, but is now registered to a post office box at the University of Melbourne.

The Age has contacted the University of Melbourne for comment.

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The DNC has made numerous attempts to file the suit against WikiLeaks via email but those have failed, meaning DNC lawyers Cohen Milstein took to Twitter to serve Julian Assange's organisation with the legal papers instead.

The DNC first filed the lawsuit against Russia and WikiLeaks in April, but in late July they filed a motion in a New York court to get permission to serve the documents via Twitter. The court papers were filed in the NY Southern District.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. Credit:AP

"Plaintiff has diligently attempted to serve WikiLeaks through a variety of methods, including emails to an address provided by WikiLeaks on its website, and by contacting counsel who have represented WikiLeaks in other matters," the motion documents read. "None of these efforts have succeeded.

"While WikiLeaks' physical presence is difficult to discern, it has a robust online presence, including an active presence on Twitter."

The documents said it was unclear if or how Wikileaks uses and conducts business via the University of Melbourne post office box. Wikileaks also has post offices boxes registered in California.

Wikileaks has been accused by the DNC of leaking Hillary Clinton's emails in the months leading up to the 2016 US election, while it also released emails belonging to Ms Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta.

The suit gives Melbourne University as Wikileaks's addressCredit:Chris Hopkins

In the court documents, the DNC accuses Russia and WikiLeaks of "brazen attack on American democracy" in the lead up to the 2016 election via the email hacking.

"Russia then used this stolen information to advance its own interests: destabilising the US political environment, denigrating the Democratic presidential nominee, and supporting the campaign of Donald J. Trump."

A 2017 US Director of National Intelligence report explained how Russia and WikiLeaks worked in tandem during in the months before the 2016 US presidential election.

"We assess with high confidence that the GRU [Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate] relayed material it acquired from the DNC and senior Democratic officials to WikiLeaks," the January 2017 intelligence report said. "Moscow most likely chose WikiLeaks because of its self-proclaimed reputation for authenticity. Disclosures through WikiLeaks did not contain any evident forgeries."